Pricing Applications for OS X iPhone

AppleInsider has a rumour about Apple trying to get developers to charge for applications they release on the AppStore for OS X iPhone devices.
As is often the case, some reactions are more interesting than the article.
Wanted to add a comment but I’m getting tired of sites which use their own authentication (instead of OpenID), so I thought I’d use Diigo to comment on the discussion. I’m sure other comments are being added "as we speak," but the conversation is veering off into trolling so I stopped.
As I read those comments, I kept thinking about DemiForce‘s Trism and about one of my own posts about no-cost software.
Other random notes about the AppStore.

If the store is built appropriately, it can give a lot of exposure to developers who may then capitalize on their work.

I’m still hoping that there will eventually be a way to have customized AppStores for universities and other institutions.

Another misleading article title. "Pushing" is not the same as "encouraging".

Agreed! The article doesn’t make it sound like the push is very aggressive and, even if it is, Apple can’t really coax developers into selling their apps if they don’t want to. – post by enkerli

clearly point to earnings as a metric

Not a bad point. But, hopefully, there are other ways to achieve this. – post by enkerli

Ahhhhh, the voice of reason. So refreshing

Agreed. But it’s not so unique. Just masked by some loud voices. – post by enkerli

you don’t need to charge a lot of money for the apps

Economies of scale should work well for some OSX iPhone apps. At the same time, there are other ways to make money that to charge for the app itself, especially in these days of online services. – post by enkerli

what about ad-supported apps?

Not a bad question. I actually hope there won’t be too much of those, but it’s likely that there will be some. It can be more subtle, using an app to lead people to a site. – post by enkerli

in the long run, an App Store with lots of freeware will get more traffic

Interesting way to put it. OTOH, it’s probably not traffic that Apple’s cares the most about, for the AppStore. – post by enkerli

iTunes gets you to the iTunes Store. TextWrangler is really BBEdit Lite. It can be considered to be a gateway drug for BBEdit.
Skype is a front-end to get you to buy some paid services.
Sketch-up has an expensive paid version.

These are useful examples of the "economy of free" because they show how diverse no-cost software can be in business model. Of course, there are many other models based on no-cost software. – post by enkerli

My apps are free because they will be Christianity related and I don’t believe that anyone should be charged to get a bible in the medium they want.

It’s hard not to respect the argument and I appreciate the honesty. Also, because the apps aren’t forced on anyone, the position seems quite open. – post by enkerli